Kidnapped toddler’s dramatic return captured by police body camera

The rising use of body cameras by police is meant to reduce brutality by officers, but new footage released this week shows a happy reunion for a three-year-old girl from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Little Caraline Leon-Alcocar was sitting in her mother’s car on Saturday evening when it was stolen from a city parking lot. The suspect jumped into the vehicle while Caraline’s mother was filling water bottles just a few feet away.

The man sped off with the toddler in the backseat, prompting what turned into a five-hour citywide search.

MISSING 3 year old, Caraline. Taken when the vehicle she was in was stolen. Last seen at 6001 Lomas NE.
Please RT pic.twitter.com/te4RlZhEAg

Alexandra Smith, legal director of the local ACLU chapter, said: "(Albuquerque) police use cameras when it suits them, and they don’t when it doesn’t", citing the case of Mary Hawkes, a 19-year-old unarmed girl who was shot in back by a police officer who didn’t turn on the camera.